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About Apple

From within the counterculture of California, two friends in a garage sparked a relationship between consumers and technology that would define the company’s success. Before the personal computer revolution, the American public had only seen computers as villains in Hollywood movies and loud complex boxes with blinking lights and spinning tapes. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, two college dropouts, would join together to put a dent in the universe. Their first product, the blue box, revealed their hippie roots. The blue box recreated the tones used by Bell Telephone and AT&T Corporation to access long distance for free. The two Steves used the blue box for pranks such as calling the Pope as Henry Kissinger but they also sold them. After being robbed at gunpoint for a Blue Box phone, Jobs and Wozniak stopped selling the grey market tool but the lifelong friends kept searching for new projects.

After attending a meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club, Wozniak was inspired by the new cheap microprocessors to build a complete personal computer. He still could not afford the $179 Intel 8080 or the $170 Motorola 6800. So while he waited for the prices to go down, he designed his computer on paper. When a new statup offered a $20 micrpocessor based on the 6800, Wozniak quickly wrote BASIC and proceeded to build his machine. He presented the first prototype to the Homebrew Computer Club where Steve Jobs was sitting in auditorium. After the meeting, Jobs convinced Wozniak to assemble their own computers and sell them just like they did with the blue boxes.

Steve Jobs sold his VW van and convinced a local computer store, The Byte Shop, to take a 50 unit order. Working out of the garage of Steve Jobs’ parent’s house in Los Altos, California, the small team worked day and night to fill the order. The simplicity and efficiency of the Apple I would earn Wozniak, a self-taught engineer, the reputation of being a master designer.

The influx of income enabled the Wozniak to expand the featured and integrate more expensive parts to improve performance. The Apple II had graphics chips and was able to produce colors. Jobs pressed to expand the marketability of the machine beyond hobbyists by redesigning the case and keyboard to sell a ready to run out of the box product. The counterculture roots of the company became a problem when the need for greater capital brought Steve Jobs to pursue loans from banks. All the bank managers in the area refused to loan a comapny of hippies any funds to build something as absurd as a personal computer. Mike Markkula, an angle investor from Silicon Valley, saw potential and enter into the agreement with the founders to form Apple Computer on April 1, 1976.

Wozniak and Jobs chose Apple as a name for their company because it would be listed early in the phonebook and it reminded Jobs of his time working at an Oregon apple farm. The logo designed by Rob Janoff in 1977 projected the company’s playfulness and Jobs desire to make computers more appealing to children. The rainbow scheme also hinted at the Apple II’s capability of reproducing colors. Jerry Manock designed the Apple II case that brought Job’s all-in one vision to life.

The Apple II was released in 1977 and went on to sell millions in the 1980s. Apple would release several iterations.

Apple went public on December 12, 1980. The Initial Public Offering of its stock garnered more capital than any company since Ford Motor Company’s IPO.

The IBM PC, introduced in 1981, would become the industry standard by 1983. A Fortune survey discovered that 56% of American companies used IBC PCS whereas only 16% used Apple units.

Diminishing market share and eager investors led Apple to invest heavily in new products. The Apple Lisa was an overpriced flop but utilized a graphic user interface and mouse accessory, borrowed from research started at Xerox PARC.

After the Lisa, Steve Jobs was seen as a liability from management and was put in charge of a small team developing a low-priced computer, named the Macintosh. The project would grow so big that it would be officially announced during the third quarter of the Super Bowl XVIII with a now critically acclaimed $1.5 million television commercial. Ridley Scott directed what is still considered the best Super Bowl commercial ever. The 1984-inspired ad never showed the computer but pitted the company as the humanity’s only hope against the conformity of Big Brother, IBM.

The Macintosh initial failure was due to the high price point and lack of software. Before launch, CEO John Sculley increased the price from $1,995 to $2,495. The failure led to Jobs’ exit in 1985 as the board chose Sculley over the hippie founder.

In the longterm, the platform became the first choice for publishes, advertisers, and artists. Desktop publishing and computer animation would save the Macintosh platform because Adobe introduced a precise laser printer and Adobe Pagemaker.

Under Sculley’s leadership, the company would ride the loyalty of the Mac consumers. The Powerbook in 1991 would be the last innovative and successful Apple product. The ineptness of management led to the company making Mac OS an open platform and selling licenses to Macintosh “clone” manufacturers. The clones undercut Apple’s products and led to the company being on the brink of financial ruin. Steve Jobs return in 1997 as interim CEO would start a monumental comeback story.

In a controversial move, Jobs axed the Mac clone licenses which resulted in the Macintosh computer market share falling to 3%. Jobs struck a deal with Microsoft to assure a five year commitment from Microsoft to release Office products and a $150 million dollar investment. another big stipulation of the deal, Apple had to drop all patent litigation against Microsoft.

Jobs shook up the whole company. He slashed the product line down to four products, centered around a UNIX operating system. The iMac integrated all the elements and ideas that Jobs nurtured with original Macitosh. The all-in-one solution and friendly colors would introduce the internet and computers to a whole new generation.

The iMac was a smash hit and would lay the groundwork to many success in many markets. The iPod with iTunes would dominate music market and would offer a roadmap to releasing the iPhone and iPad. At Steve Jobs death in 2011, the Apple had become the most highly valued company in the world.

The post-Jobs era saw Tim Cook take the lead and continue expanding the companies reach in electronic accessories by purchasing Beats in 2015 and launching the Apple watch in 2014.

What are the best Apple deals?

The generation of Apple laptops can receive at most 5-7%off. Last generation of laptops receives around 10 to 15% off. Apple peripherals can receive up to 20% off but those deals are rare and most commonly receive around 10% off. Apple Watch has seen around 5%off at most.